I asked Ben what he would like to do for his birthday this year and if he needed anything so I could have some ideas for presents. He said there wasn't much you could do because of Covid. He said that he and Josh were going to go do some airsoft during the day on Saturday. Then we could do something with his mom and sister that evening. So we planned accordingly. Trish, Ed and Amy were going to come over on Saturday evening, stay the night, we would go out to dinner, play games and eat breakfast the next day. Everyone was good with that.
Friday, February 19
On Friday, we both went to work and planned on meeting up with the Pablo's at Red Robin's because they wanted to treat Ben to dinner for his birthday weekend. Ben and I had to drive separate because Ben had to work late and he was pretty bummed out. That meant he had to hurry and feel rushed. He did ask me to bring him some other clothes so he didn't have to wear his work gear. I left the house and found a parking spot within the Red Robin complex. Ben had also arrived and we met up with the Pablo's and they told us we had about a 40 minute wait. So we went across the street to the Goodwill. We browsed and I found a couple puzzles to work on because there wasn't much else to do during the winter time during Covid.
Our buzzer went off, we went back over and were seated right away. Our drinks were brought over and we ordered our food. I had a Red's Tavern Double with fries and a Coke and Ben had Whiskey River Burger and fries because their Peppercorn Burger was discontinued along with a lot of the other favorited items on the menu. Covid sucks!
We ate our food and visited. I haven't been to Red Robin since Doug's birthday of 2020 before the stupid pandemic happened. That's over a year and we usually go at least once every three or four months. I had to miss my free birthday burger in November because we weren't in the correct phase to enjoy it. The Pablo's paid for both of our dinners (I did not expect them to pay for mine) and we thanked them for a nice time and dinner. I had to get gas in the Escape before I went home.
That night I finished listening to the Hide and Seek podcast, worked on my puzzle a little bit and got Ben's cupcakes done for tomorrow's party. Wade was trying to be a helper.
We both went to be shortly after.
Saturday, February 20
Ben got up around 7, got dressed in his airsoft gear and headed out to Steadman Road to meet up with Josh and other airsoft goers. He spent almost the entire day over there.
Meanwhile, I drove to Erika and Zach's apartment and dropped off some cupcakes and cookies for them, I stayed a bit and chatted with her and gave Emmett pets.
Next, I drove out to Rainier to drop off the recycle and then went to Grandma's house to drop off some fabric Erika bought her. I went over to Bob and Bev's house to visit and to drop off a puzzle I got them the night before. I stayed for about two hours helping with a puzzle which I didn't intend on doing because I had to get the house ready for when Ben's mom, sister and Ed showed up.
I thanked them for the hospitality and they sent me with a puzzle of my own to bring home. I stopped by Mom and Dad's house for a bit and paid Mom for this month's phone bill. I played with Kirby for a few minutes before Mom had to get ready to go to the store and the post office.
I went home and cleaned up the house as quick as I could. Ben got home minutes before I did and spent time cleaning out his gear and getting cleaned up. I got the vacuuming done and some of the other little things. Trish, Amy and Ed showed up like 20 minutes sooner than we anticipated. They got settled in and I turned on the Gonzaga game while we waited for Ben to finish getting ready.
We all piled into Ben's Edge and drove to west side near the mall. We pulled into the parking lot to Outback and saw the place was swimming in cars. We were going to have to wait at least an hour. Ben went in and verified that it would be an hour. I was hungry. I didn't eat much today because I knew we were going to eat a bunch of food for dinner. We all didn't want to wait that long so we decided on something else. Covid has sure changed the way we all go out to eat.
Ben decided on Applebee's and drove across the street. That wait was going to be a half hour. We walked over to Dick's, inside the mall, to waste time for a while. We thought we wasted enough time so we walked back over and sat in the waiting area. We sat there for probably 20 more minutes before we were seated. I was beyond hungry now. We made sure to know what we wanted when we were seated so we got our drinks and ordered at the same time so we could get our food sooner. We at, I had chicken strips and fries and Ben had himself a steak because he wanted a steak and he WAS going to have a steak for dinner. We paid and headed on home for some games, snacks and drinks.
We got the beer out that I purchased from Total Wine and More a couple weeks ago. I grabbed a variety of local beers. We tried most of them and eventually one person finished a can. I bought myself a 2 Towns Ciderhouse Cosmic Crip cider.
Next, Ben opened his presents, booze, socks, slippers, a mug and some cards and Facebook live his man crate from the Pablo's.
We played Pandemic (which was super appropriate for what we've been dealing with) and then 10,000 followed by some random card games.
We finally gave up, cleaned up and went to bed. This was around 2. Trish and Ed got the guest room and Amy got the couch.
Sunday, February 21
We got up between 9:30 and 10. Wade and Oliver were hungry so they kept pestering us. I used the restroom and washed my face and then came out to start breakfast for everyone. Since there are five of us, the egg, potato and sausage scramble seems to work and feed everyone. I had Ben get up so he could make the scones. He took is sweet time but he eventually got up and got them done.
Breakfast was finally done so we ate. Everything turned out pretty good. Trish and Amy did the dishes, Amy was reluctant to help but she did eventually. Afterwards, everyone got ready to go. They packed up their stuff and Ben and I put on some different pants.
We headed out to Puyallup to take care of some family stuff with his aunt. Ben and Amy had to be there at the same time so his aunt didn't have to say everything twice. We picked up one cache, Fence Part 1 (GC85R4M) on the way there while we waited for Trish and Amy to drop off Ed at his apartment.
We were there for about an hour talking about the paperwork his aunt had prepared. We thanked her and continued on with our day. Since it was dry I asked Ben if we could find some caches on the way home, he said sure. Trish and Amy headed home with a stop at the grocery store.
I saw there were two up ahead at Meridian Habitat Park. I told Ben that I haven't been to this park it at least ten years. The last time was with Bob and Bev picking up caches which have since been archived. We parked and walked to the first one, Weird Swing 2 (GC8MG5B) and then to the second one Weird Swing (GC8KJFG) which was on the other side of the playground...so we had to walk past a bunch of people with kids and a barking dog. Both were easy finds. We walked back to the Edge.
We drove across Meridian and onto 144th for Hemlock Pond (GC22XKG) on a guardrail and a little further up the road at an intersection "Plugged" (GC4CN6F) which was on a fire hydrant in plain sight.
We finished off the day picking up Cheese It! It's the Fuzz! (GC6RVFQ) which was a very well stocked ammo box at a Pierce County Sherriff's department building. We've been here once before and we thought it was missing but didn't find it because it was getting dark and we were trying to hurry. This time we found it without any problems.
Went home the back way down Hwy 7 and 507 through Nisqually Reservation and onto Yelm Highway. We got home, fed the kitties, started pork chops, rice and green beans for dinner while we watched Cobra Kai and Chopped. Got cleaned up and ready for bed. We had a super busy weekend with lots of family, fun, food and geocaching!
Happy Birthday Ben!
Next Adventure: Grandma Karen's 80th Birthday Party
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